Funki

Hi Folks,

I posted a thread in the alcohol forum, but I thought I'd introduce myself here too.

I joined SB yesterday I think. On 05/03 I'll have 90 days alcohol free but I'm still in early recovery. On the 18th of this month I had 90 days free from cannabis. So that's one step ahead. Currently I'm on the nicotine patch (8 weeks since smoking) and working on removing that next sometime in May. I'm a little scared about that re-upping withdrawal symptoms or PAWS, but honestly I'd rather get it out of the way sooner rather than go through another cycle in a year or two.

I'm working a twelve step program but also open to and investigating other options.

Hoping to use this as a community for open-minded discussion on all these topics.

Anna

Congratulations on close to 90 days of sobriety from alcohol and more than 90 days from cannabis. Good job on deciding to stop smoking too. That's a lot to deal with, but I bet that you will find you are feeling good and so healthy and that will help to motivate you to continue.
We have members who use many different recovery methods and the most important thing is to find something that's a good fit for you.

Funki

Thanks so much! Yes it's a lot but I want to get to the point where i'm dependent on zero chemicals. One of my friends once called cannabis, alcohol, and nicotine the unholy trifecta. So many people that don't really do hard drugs still do that triad.

Anna

I think you're making a great decision.

Robbie64

Welcome to SR Funki . Great that you're almost on 90 days though when I first read your post it threw me seeing the date as 05/03 as I read that as being the 5th of March!
You've given up a lot of things at the same time - alcohol, cannabis and nicotine - so well done that you've managed all three. For nicotine patches the recommendation in the UK is to try and stop using the patches after 12 weeks though I do know of people who used them for one year plus. Everyone is different. I used them years ago to stop smoking regularly (unfortunately the second I drink I smoke like a chimney so all I ever did was to stop smoking on a refgular basis) and after about 8 weeks I moved to a lower dose patch. In the end I was glad to come off the patches as they were making me feel dizzy.

SeaSlug

Hi there
I'm new here. I'm excited for you for 90days. I'll have 30 days on the same day.
Wishing you the best and see you around

Funki

Thanks so much. How did you feel after coming off them? I switched to the lowest dose patch after 6 weeks and I am currently on it. I also am wearing them less hours approximately each week. So, now wearing them 9 hours a day not 16 or 24. I'm using that to attempt a final wean. My plan is to stop using them at week 11 of using them. Trying to easy does it. It was week 8 yesterday of using the patch.

I'm the same as you where I tried to quit smoking while drinking and while I here and there got anywhere from 2 days to 6 months without it, drinking always brought it back at some point. Cart before the horse. After 2-3 drinks I would almost be guaranteed to want a cigarette. Drunk? Chain smoking here I come.

I would have easy does it in recovery and smoked for a bit, but at one month sober my throat was having legitimate issues (trouble swallowing, feeling like it hurt/was clogged up with breathing). So, I was kinda forced to quit ahead of schedule. But, I'm glad for it.However, I also don't want to be on the patch for more than 12 weeks, so here I am.

By the way, although current guidelines recommend using the patch for 8-12 weeks, new studies say that it's perfectly safe to do it for 6 months to a year. In fact, 12 weeks to 6 months of use was associated with higher long term quitting rates. Over 6 months of use didn't show any further benefit than that.

Funki

Thanks so much! Good job on almost 30 days. In my experience the first 30 days can be some of the most challenging. If you can get that you can get another.

Robbie64

If I recall after about 10 weeks the urge to smoke had completely gone (this was back when I'd previosuly been a 20-30 a day person for well over a decade) and I stopped using them. I stayed completely off cigarettes for another 2.5 months but as soon as I started drinking again... as you posted it was simply chain smoking. The same thing still happens to this day. No alcohol = no urge at all for a cigarette.

As for how long to keep the patches on each day, I only did so during waking hours simply because I would go to bed and wake up with the patch having fallen off. Indeed sometimes I would have a problem getting them to stay on during the day and so had to resort at times to using an adhesive bandage to get them to stay in place.

Funki

Did you have withdrawals from the patch? I'm trying to get a sense of that. I'm on the 7 mg patch, and it will be 9 weeks of wearing them in two days. I plan to wear them at least 10 weeks.